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Chapter 12 / Examples

the entire surface. removing unwanted paint and mak ing the wood
ready for a finish. This is the quickest way to ma ke a sign. but if
you want to get creative. the next sign I made took a bit mo re
thought to produce. Figure 12.25 shows a sign with raised letters
on a lowered portion of the board with letters routed along single
lines at the top of the board.

Figure 12.25
McGraw-Hili More complicated sign.

To create the pa th for the top letters. I first wrote the text on a page
in Core lDraw to corres po nd to the size of the sign I wa nted to
make. Then I selected the text a nd converted it into a bitmap. Once
the text is converted to a bitmap you ca n trace it using CorelTrace.
You will need to convert the text bitmap into a black a nd white
image after CorelTrace ope ns. Trace the image using the centerline
method a nd when you are happy with the resu lt. close CorelTrace.
The trace result will now be the selected object on the drawing.
Move the tra ce out of the wa y so you can select a nd de lete the
bitmap you created from the text. Move the trace where you wa nt
it. The raised letters on the lowered portion of the sign can be
made by placing a box the size of the area to be lowered on the
drawing a nd filling the box wit h color. Type text over the box. giv-
ing the text a different color. and size the text. Because I wanted
to use a different router bit for the text at the top of the sign tha n
for the raised letters. I made two files. After I lined everything up I
selected the box and letters on the lower po rtio n of the sign a nd
cut them. I exported the remain ing part of the sign as an HPGL file
nam ed sign I.plt. Then I pa sted the lower part I had cut from the

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